I can understand the code for the most part (although I have no idea why they handle the memory like that with the LocalAlloc and LocalLock.) The problem is first, I don't know how to get the handle to the application, and second, why would you need an idetifier for a child window. Isn't the status bar itself a child window? What exactly is the function looking for there? Personally I wish they'd just made the status bar a common control so I could implement it with a recource script. But anyway, if you can help I'd appreciate it.

Ok, never mind the above, I was able to figure that much out on my own. But now it seems I have a new problem... To create a status bar you must first initialize the class (I assume this is for memory saving purposes.) The function for this is InitCommonControlsEx. You can look up any relevant information on it here. The code I wrote to handle this operation is as follows:

LPINITCOMMONCONTROLSEX ControlSet;

ControlSet.dwSize = 4 //I assumed 32 bits would be enough for this but honestly I have no clue what it's for :\
ControlSet.dwICC = ICC_BAR_CLASSES;

InitCommonControlsEx(ControlSet);

This produces no less than 7 errors. I have a feeling I'm missing something really obvious here, but I can't figure out where I went wrong. Any advice?

Well, nm the whole thing. As it turns out you can't initialize control classes until after you create the diolog (my bad for not including the full code.) Also, I wasn't setting the WS_VISIBLE proporty when creating the status bar. Sheesh, is it just me or is the Windows API way more complicated than it needs to be?

The essence of Christianity is told us in the Garden of Eden history. The fruit that was forbidden was on the Tree of Knowledge. The subtext is, All the suffering you have is because you wanted to find out what was going on. You could be in the Garden of Eden if you had just kept your f***ing mouth shut and hadn't asked any questions.